Could Chipman's Latest Endorsement Hurt Him With Democrats?

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

David Chipman is undergoing the confirmation hearings to become head of the ATF. There’s not much chance of him getting a lot of Republican support, either. After all, Chipman has made his post ATF career all about his support for curtailing the Second Amendment rights of American citizens.

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If Chipman is going to get confirmed, he needs Democrats to unify behind his nomination.

However, a recent endorsement may potentially hurt him with that group.

Several national organizations representing law enforcement officers are applauding President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives ahead of his confirmation hearing Wednesday, according to correspondence obtained by CNN.

In a series of letters addressed to the Senate Judiciary Committee, national policing groups endorsed the nomination of David Chipman — a fierce advocate for gun control — whose hearing comes as the nation faces a spike in mass shootings.

“David has enormous credibility as a 25-year veteran of ATF with on-the-ground experience,” wrote Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, adding Chipman had demonstrated deep understanding of gun crime issues.

The ATF has been without a permanent director since 2015.
Other organizations expressing their support included the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Women in Federal Law Enforcement, Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, and the National Black Police Association.
If confirmed, Chipman would return to the agency where he worked for over two decades as a special agent.
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Of course, let’s also remember that Democrats are also the party of Defund the Police.

That sort of leads to the question of whether the potential injury to his chances is significant, and the truth is, I doubt it. Right now, the media and the progressive machine are going to push for Chipman’s confirmation simply because they know he’ll take an anti-gun position in an agency that not just enforces gun laws but interprets how they’ll enforce them, essentially creating law out of whole cloth.

Yeah, there’s no way a government agency should be able to do that, yet here we are.

The thing is, they’ll want to push him in so he can deliver the results they’re demanding, which is likely to be a reinterpretation of every pro-gun ruling the agency’s made in the last 20 years.

However, that doesn’t mean something can’t be done to push a wedge in there.

After all, Chipman was in law enforcement before he became a full-time gun-grabber. That law enforcement history can’t sit well with the vehemently anti-police wing of the Democratic Party. If that group becomes loud enough, it may well scuttle any chance Chipman may have had at confirmation.

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That’s a good thing for everyone, really. Yes, that includes the anti-police wing of the Democrats. After all, if you’re pushing for less policing in our lives, how could you back a nominee who wants to make a whole pile of stuff illegal, thus creating a greater need for enforcement? That’s precisely what Chipman will do, after all, and we all know it.

If some parties start to realize that, Chipman’s chances are sunk.

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